BIDENTD(8)

✨ bidentd ✨

okay bestie, gather round, because we're about to talk about bidentd — that's Bisqwit's TCP/IP Identification Protocol daemon, from section 8 of the manual (the big scary sysadmin one, iykyk) 🎀

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

bidentd [ -qq | -q | -v | -vv | -vvv ]

💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

So bidentd is a daemon for the internet Identification Protocol, the one described by RFC 1413. No cap. And the way it slays is that it supports recursive IP masquerade — like, a machine gets Internet access through a masquerading machine which itself has Internet access through another masquerading machine, and so on, forever, turtles all the way down 🐢🦋

And here's the iconic part: the program requires no setup. No config files. None. Zero. It's giving low-maintenance queen 👑

It's designed to be run from the Internet superserver (inetd).

bidentd requires no command-line arguments — but some are supported though. Explained below, bestie, don't worry 💖

⭐ OPTIONS ⭐

These options control how much info gets dumped to the system log. And here's the tea: you can specify them separately or in a group — -qq equals -q -q. Cute, right?

• -qq — output nothing to the log. Silence. Mute. Not a peep 🙈
• -q — output only fatal errors to the log. Only the emergencies make it through 💀
• (no option) — if you specify no option at all, the log includes one line for every response sent, plus any fatal errors. That's the default vibe ✨
• -v — be a little more verbose than when no option is specified. Just a lil yap 🫶
• -vv — output everything that -v outputs and additional debug information. The plot thickens 🔥
• -vvv — output a lot of debug information in addition to everything that -v outputs. Maximum yapping. Main character energy, fr fr 👑

🎀 FILES 🎀

• /proc/net/tcp — this file is required for bidentd operation. Non-negotiable, bestie.
• /proc/net/ip_masquerade — if masquerade support is desired, this file is needed. Want the masquerade? You need the file 💜
• /proc/net/ip_conntrack — this file will be used for masquerading connection tracking if the kernel is from the 2.4-series. Old-school kernel? This is your girl 🌸

👑 AUTHOR 👑

Bisqwit's identd was written by Joel Yliluoma <bisqwit@iki.fi>. Some enhancements and this manual page were added by Antti-Juhani Kaijanaho.

ok that's the whole page, you ate that 🍓 go forth and ident, bestie 💖

Bisqwit's identd, dated 2002-05-01, section 8 of the manual — that's the version and the date, and honestly? Iconic. Periodt. 💅